1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a method of controlling the same, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, as an example of an information processing apparatus, there may be mentioned an image forming apparatus, such as a multifunction peripheral (MFP). In recent years, along with development of the information processing technique, main processing performed by the image forming apparatus is shifting from image processing to information processing. Further, it has become general to configure an image forming apparatus such that an image processing processor required to be controlled on a real-time basis and an information processing processor for processing communication and user interface are made separate from each other.
According to the above-mentioned separation of the processors, memory devices are connected to the processors, respectively. However, a memory device sometimes erroneously operates due to a contact failure caused by vibrations at the time of installation work of the apparatus or attachment of conductive floating dust to the memory device. Particularly, when the entire image forming apparatus is considered, as the number of memory devices increases, a risk of an erroneous operation becomes higher. Further, an erroneous operation (abnormal operation) caused by a contact failure or a short circuit of the memory device causes a most serious problem of display screen freezing during a startup process of the image forming apparatus, resulting in the incapability of startup of the apparatus.
As described above, when the entire image processing apparatus cannot be started up e.g. due to the contact failure of the memory device, it is required to perform notification of the abnormal state and immediately cope with the problem.
By the way, there has been proposed an image forming apparatus that detects an abnormal voltage and stores the history of the detected abnormal voltage in a nonvolatile memory (see e.g. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2008-187288).
Further, there has been proposed an image forming apparatus that is provided with a plurality of processors, and is configured to cause the processors to monitor each other and reconstruct the monitoring system when an abnormality is detected (see e.g. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H02-59955).
Furthermore, there has been proposed an image forming apparatus that is provided with a plurality of processors each of which records events having occurred therein in a volatile memory as a log, and then stores the events in a nonvolatile memory at a predetermined timing (see e.g. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2010-224751).
In Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2008-187288, when an output voltage of a power supply circuit is detected, it is detected whether or not the output voltage is abnormal, at a predetermined period. However, in this publication, only detection of an abnormality of the output voltage is performed, and hence when a faulty connection occurs in the memory device, the image forming apparatus cannot be started up. As a consequence, there is a problem that in such a case, an abnormality of the output voltage cannot be detected. Under such a situation, even when the voltage detection operation is normal, the image forming apparatus cannot be started up.
On the other hand, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H02-59955 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2010-224751, the plurality of processors share information using a shared memory. Further, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H02-59955, the plurality of processors monitor each other by recording monitoring link information in the shared memory, and when an abnormality is detected, the monitoring system is reconstructed and the monitoring link information is stored in the shared memory. In Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2010-224751, an event is stored using the shared memory, and then is logged into a nonvolatile memory for synchronization.
However, when an abnormality occurs in the memory device, information stored in the shared memory may be destroyed or may not be correctly read. In both Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H02-59955 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2010-224751, only one system of the shared memory is provided, and hence if the memory device as the shared memory has an abnormality, a startup error cannot be detected. Further, if an abnormality occurs at the startup of the image forming apparatus, there is no guarantee that the abnormality detection function, which is expected to operate in a state in which the image forming apparatus has been normally started up, normally operates.